Like many reviewers I loved Sarah's Key. For The Rain Watcher, many other reviewers seemed to be put off by the number of street names cited in the story, however, that was my favorite part of the book. If you know Paris, this detail will create a vivid picture of the action unfolding throughout. (I live part-time in the flood zone) The only thing keeping me from giving 5 stars is the conclusion. I felt frustrated by the abrupt ending that lacked the explanations about what was in the letter? The box? And what is the relationship between Paul and the death of Suzanne. Does this foretell a sequel that answers these questions?

A quiet, contemplative book that was totally different than expected. The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay is a book that I think a lot of readers will love, and a lot of readers will dislike. It’s a slow, character-driven read that doesn’t have a lot of plot, but instead is contemplative and is more of a family drama without the drama. This type of read will not appeal to all readers, but those that enjoy this style of book I think will really enjoy this.
The Rain Watcher is set in modern-day Paris at the start of an epic rainstorm that floods the city. I must admit that prior to reading this book I had no idea that Paris had flooding issues. There is lots of focus on the Zouave statue in Paris that helps judge the flood levels, and it was quite interesting to read about the different levels of flooding and to learn about this. This particular flood was, I think, either on par with, or worse than the big Paris flood of 1910, an event that I was absolutely clueless about until I read this novel.
The story is told primarily by Linden Malegarde, a thirty-six year-old gay man who lives in San Francisco, but journeys to Paris for a weekend with his parents and his sister. Linden is a famous photographer, and there is some information here about photography. I found these sections interesting, and not bogged down with too many technical details about photography. Linden’s parents, Paul and Lauren, both have health issues while in Paris, and the story is really one about Linden’s relationship with his father, who seems to only be passionate about trees. The reason for his love of trees is told, and I found these sections of flashbacks to young Paul to be out of place. I didn’t think they were necessary, and they didn’t fit the flow of the rain and the disaster Paris was undergoing in the rest of the book.
A lot of the book is about dealing with disaster and trauma, as Paris undergoes the natural disaster of flooding, and Linden’s sister, Tilia has to deal with being the sole survivor of a horrific car crash that killed many of her friends. Tilia’s past, Paris’s present, and Linden’s future all come to a head at this family weekend, and the book really explores all of the relationships and events that have affected the family.
As Linden is a photographer, he of course goes out and photographs Paris during the disaster. I found these scenes to be memorable and true. I can’t speak for flooding, but I’m familiar with being around a natural disaster due to the Tubbs Fire from last October, and I feel Tatiana de Rosnay gets the scenes right as she writes about Linden’s tour of the city during the floods and the quiet the city experiences. These scenes brought tears to my eyes as they felt so raw and emotional, and I was reliving my experiences through those scenes.
Because this book was such a slow, contemplative read, I am not sure how well it will be received. Quiet, character-based reads are not for everyone, and I was expecting a much different read going in, more along the lines of Sarah’s Key. There was something quietly beautiful about this read that I liked, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more plot and action to this. I can’t say that I was bored, as it was just such a different read, and I know I’ll remember this book, but be aware going in that this is more of a contemplative read.

Bottom Line: A quiet, contemplative read that focuses on the characters.

Linden Malegarde returns to Paris for his father's 70th birthday. While his sister travels from England, his parents come from their estate in the country where his father communes with and tends to a rich forest of trees, trees and plants that are famous around the world.

Paris is suffering from torrential rains that lead to a flood. The flooding reaches near legendary levels just as Linden's father suffers a stroke and is brought to hospital.

As Linden tries to manage his father's care, he travels through the streets of Paris and remembers how the city brought him freedom and led him to his career in photography.

The Rain Watcher is partly Linden's story, but it is also about family, acceptance, finding one's way.

Vivid, captivating, and melancholic!

The Rain Watcher is a moving, beautiful portrayal of a city in turmoil and a family struggling to understand, accept, and outwardly show compassion and love for each other.

The writing is impassioned and eloquent. The characters are empathetic, distressed, and genuine. And the plot is a mesmeric, foreboding tale set both in the present day and mid-1900s about life, loss, love, family dynamics, secrets, determination, hope, sacrifice, and the desolation and destruction mother nature can reap.

The Rain Watcher is a wonderful blend of historical facts, intriguing fiction, and palpable emotion. It’s a nostalgic, heartbreaking, consuming tale that reminds us of the complex relationship that can exist between a father and son and highlights once again de Rosnay's insight and passion for La Ville-Lumière.

This book was just ok. It started out really slowly, and by the time I got interested, it ended and I'm not even sure that was an ending. I feel like the ending is missing something, like an actual ending. It just sort of leaves you hanging, and I wasn't a fan of that at all.

This was a strange read. Storylines don’t seem to pull together very well and the end. Ugh. I read the last sentence and was shocked that nothing was settled with any of the stories. I think the book needs a major overhaul. I wish I could give it a better review but I just can’t.

The Rain Watcher is the story of the Malegarde family with a main focus on Linden. The family (Paul, Lauren and Tilia) meet in Paris for Paul's 70th birthday and Paul and Lauren's anniversary, all while a devastating rain is causing the Seine to rise to major flood levels, comparing it to the flood of 1910.

While at Paul's birthday dinner, he has a stroke and Lauren comes down with the flu which then turns into pneumonia. Linden must be the one to advocate for his father because of a secret his sister, Tilia, has been harboring since an accident in 2005.

There was one storyline in the book that I felt wasn't followed through on, for example, when Linden was four years old and was being cared for by Suzanne because his mother was pregnant. The Suzanne part is resolved, but not the pregnancy part.

I, unfortunately, did not feel a connection to any of the characters, and that is an important part of a story for me. I did appreciate the descriptions of the flooded areas of Paris and felt those parts were well researched and written. I also enjoyed the part where Linden talked to his father about his relationship with Sacha, and Paul's reaction to it.

I received an advanced copy of this book; all opinions are my own.

Sarah's Key is a book that still haunts me today. I was very excited to read this book. It did not disappoint. The Malegarde family gathers for a birthday party during a strong rain storm. While together, family secrets are revealed. I highly recommend this book. You will love it. One of my favorite books.

By the author of Sarah’s Key. To celebrate Paul Malegere’s 70th birthday, the whole family is gathering in Paris. Secrets, lies and hidden truths are holding this family together, but will they also tear them apart?

Unfortunately this just wasn't my type of book. I was expecting more suspense or drama but there wasn't really anything shocking. I also can't say I enjoyed the writing style. It wasn't conversational and I found myself skimming a lot. This book was just a miss for me all the way around. I'm giving it 3 stars because it wasn't bad, just not for me.

Tatiana de Rosnay is one of my favorite authors. The Rain Watcher is not one of my favorite works by de Rosnay, mainly due to the dreariness of the setting and the troubled lives of the characters.

While I was reading this novel, it rained. It’s raining as I write this. I can tell you that de Rosnay did an excellent job creating the mood in Paris as the Seine River overflows its banks and parts of Paris become flooded. The rain is never-ending.

During this drenching ordeal, the Malegarde family gathers together to celebrate their father’s birthday and their parents wedding anniversary. Their weekend plans are drastically changed due to the weather and some unexpected health problems which trap the family in Paris and force them to face some relationship issues that were long buried.

I thought the setting and the writing were excellent. I was a bit confused as to why the story about Susanne was added and wondered why there wasn’t more clarification at the ending about that topic.

The story kept my interest, but the satisfaction I normally feel at the end of a book just wasn’t there this time around.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

In an effort to be totally transparent, I must confess that it took me several attempts to get past the first chapter. However, I was definitely in the mood to give The Rain Watcher the attention it deserves. As per usual, Tatiana de Rosnay takes readers to her familiar stomping grounds to the streets of Paris, as the Seine waters rise and one modern family comes under the microscope. By the time I reached the end, I felt satisfied that I had read the story right until the end. A lot of relatable familial issues are present and no doubt, people who have experienced with some of the situations that Rosnay's characters go through will no doubt struck a chord. Now, I am not trying to be cynical, in fact, my heart was strumming with empathy (is that possible?). But I am going to chime in with some of my fellow reviewers and agree that something was definitely off in the actual writing structure. Sarah's Key and The House I Loved engulfed my soul and I still adore re-reading them. But I feel like some of the author's usual magic and her ability to break my heart was (oh gosh,here I go) replaced by a story that is a bit redundant and I couldn't go any higher in my rating.

The Rain Watcher is the latest book by Tatiana de Rosnay. The Rain Watcher deals with a family during the flooding of Paris. At times I found the story painfully slow and at other times really enjoyed it. To me the ending was very disappointing. I was given an early copy to review.

A big thank you to the author and publisher for giving me a digital ARC of this title via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I have really enjoyed previous titles by Tatiana de Rosnay so I was very excited to see she had a new title coming out this year. She is a talented author and storyteller. I love the depth and levels she gives to her characters that draws you in to their lives and makes me care about them. I was quite intrigued by the storyline of each of the Malegarde family members as well as the setting in Paris during the flooding of the Seine. Rosnay did a great job jumping between characters and time periods but pulling it all together into a seamless, cohesive novel that was enjoyable to read. I liked the journey of the characters learning more about themselves and their family members while on the trip together and as they support each other through the father's stroke. There is open honesty, deep retrospective memories, and growth. I found the ending to be a little lacking for such a strong novel, but otherwise enjoyed the read.

I have a complicated relationship with Tatiana de Rosnay's books, having absolutely loved (or, at least, remembering a fierce love for) Sarah's Key when it first came out in 2006, but for some reason that I can't even really put into words not having picked up a single of her books since then and before The Rain Watcher. Normally I'm prone to immediately jumping on any book written by an author that I've read and enjoyed previously, but it just didn't stick with Tatiana de Rosnay.

One thing I remember being primarily taken with in relation to Sarah's Key was the prose - Tatiana de Rosnay's writing is especially beautiful and that did not disappoint in The Rain Watcher. It's a complicated book to try and describe, honestly,  but I think what saved it was definitely the writing. 

At it's core, The Rain Watcher is about family - the inextricably tangled bonds that govern our lives, in ways both good and bad, simple and complicated, fleeting and forever. I feel that if the book had been left to just this; just the family and the relationships therein, it would have been a much stronger read for me. However, there were many other subplots (some that made sense as to why the family was the way it was; why their relationships had taken on a specific edge or where a particular undercurrent in present day conversations originated, and others that I didn't see the need for). 

The (let's face it, overarching) subplot of the disastrous flooding of the Seine was interesting to me, as I honestly did not know the extent to which the Seine could flood - never having been to Paris or reading up on it much myself. It was especially interesting because I live in an area of the US that is prone to flooding, having been built on what used to be marshes and is now filled in land or land near a coast that is under sea level as it is. I could completely connect with people not wanting to leave their homes, with the worry and anger and fear and rage at oneself and everyone in your path during the scarier moments - luckily I have only ever experienced a fraction of those emotions, but I can undoubtedly envision them. In a weird way, this was the part of the book that took on the most meaning to me and, well, I don't think it was meant to be that way.

At 240 pages, it's hard to say that the book was too long... but in a way that's exactly what it felt like. I would have much more preferred a short story just about a family coming together and having to deal with their own personal shortcomings and tragedies, rather than bringing in unnecessary doom and peril (maybe to add "value?") to a story that could have stood on it's own.

All of this being said - I stand by what I said earlier: the writing saved the book. It might have been hard to connect to the characters, and I might have had no sense of place or time because of the relentless specific descriptions of street names and patisseries and cafes and shops in a Paris that I wouldn't know (whether it was under water or not), and I might have not really seen any reason whatsoever for the big reveal at the end ... but I do think it was a solid 3 star read. I may not tell you to go out and grab it today - but I think it would be perfect for a long weekend in when you have time to spare and aren't sure what to read.

A French/American family's reunion during one weekend in Paris is tinged by the lingering undercurrents of some family tension. The story is told from Linden's POV-he's the son of a famous French arborist and even though he's a success in his own right, his own feelings of inadequacy pepper this story. While Linden is trying to make his peace with his family and himself, Paris is in the midst of a horrific weather tragedy-it rains and rains and the Seine floods its banks. I have loved de Rosnay's previous works but I'll admit to being a little underwhelmed by this one. The story was beautifully told but I don't know that the various narratives were fully played out.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Like millions of other people, I absolutely loved SARAH’S KEY so was sorely disappointed with the author’s latest book THE RAIN WATCHER. The story seemed to drag along with nothing that hooked me. The writing is beautiful so that alone may delight some, but it just didn’t work for me.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Relentless rain is flooding Paris, the Seine is threatening to overflow. Linden Malegarde reunites with his sister and parents to celebrate his father's birthday. The story is told by sifting through years of Linden's reminiscing memories.

The story was hard to get into and really didn't capture my attention.

3☆

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Linden Malegarde has returned home to Paris from the United States where he lives with his partner. It has been years since his family was all together. They have reunited for the patriarch's birthday; Paul is celebrating a milestone and is turning 70.

The City of Lights is on the verge of a natural disaster when the Seine bursts and it floods the city. Paris is as fragile as the Malegarde family's relationships—each member is trying to balance the delicate family dynamics. Paul is a world-renowned arborist that only seems to have eyes for his grove of trees. Lauren is his American wife who is determined to make the weekend a success. Tilia, the blunt oldest child has an 18-year-old daughter Mistral who is adored by her uncle Linden. Colin is Tilia's much older spouse, an elegant British art dealer that can no longer hid his drinking problem.

And that leaves Linden. He has never been comfortable in his own skin and never feels settled having grown up as an American in France, and a Frenchman in the US. His relationship with his father has always been off. Even though he is a successful and in demand photographer, he feels that he will always be a disappointment to his parents.

Bound by tragic events, the family must fight to remain united as secrets unfold and their greatest fears surface.

Set in Paris during a rainstorm, this gorgeous, haunting work was captivating from start to finish.
de Rosnay's writing is elegant, hypnotic, and incredibly moving. The story is profound and intense, yet soft and beautiful. I devoured this book in one sitting and would highly recommend.

Tatiana de Rosnay's book, Sarah's Key, is a favorite of mine, so I was so excited to read The Rain Watcher. I loved it just as much, maybe more. She tells such beautiful stories and the way she is able to intertwine the characters' lives is great. I immediately loved Linden, the son, and soon loved his sister, Tilia too. However, I think the father, Paul is my favorite. He reminds me a lot of my own father - very intelligent and quiet, loves his kids but doesn't know how to show it.

The story is set in rainy Paris and the description completely take me there. The family is in Paris for a family reunion but bad weather and illness make them stay much longer than planned. They discover so much about themselves and learn to forgive themselves and each other. The forced time together brings them all so much closer and includes great twists and turns about their personal lives. I definitely recommend this book and hope we don't have to wait four years for the next one. A great read!